President Chen Shui-bian's
stop-over in Los Angeles

On August 13 and 14 2000, Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian made a
stop-over in Los Angeles, enroute to the Carribean, where he was to
visit the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

A number of members of the US Congress, many of whom were in LA to
attend the Democratic National Convention, were planning to meet with
the newly-elected president, who just entered office on May 20th 2000,
after his March 2000 election victory.

The members of Congress included Sam Gejdenson (D-CT), Howard Berman
(D-CA), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), David Wu (D-OR),
Bob Wexler (D-FL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who have all been
consistent supporters of Taiwan in the House.

However, the Clinton Administration put heavy pressure on the
DPP-government to decline any requests by Congressmen to meet with
President Chen. An aide to Congressman Gejdenson said that the Clinton
Administration " has pressured Chen not to meet with the
lawmakers ".

Taiwan Communiqué comment: We suggest that this
course of action by the Administration is yet another signal in the
wrong direction: why is the democratically-elected leader of one of
the most free and democratic nations in Asia shunned, and being
treated like a pariah, while the leader of a repressive, communist-led
government (Mr. Jiang Zemin) gets a red-carpet treatment at the White
House in Washington.

If the US wishes to enhance democracy in Asia and the rest of
the world it should display a more friendly attitude to those who
through hard work and much personal sacrifice (read
"A
Profile of Courage" in issue no. 92 of our Taiwan Communiqué)
brought about a democratic transition in their country. Instead of
shunning Chen Shui-bian in LA, we should welcome him in Washington.

Both Berman and Rohrabacher
wrote to Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia and the Pacific
Stanly Roth to protest the restrictions.